Hawk V-Lite 35mm and Panavision C-Series 35mm, barrel distortion comparison. Photographed at the same stop and distance. From the test we can see that the C-series lens suffers much less barel distortion than the hawk. This is in part due to the different designs of the lenses. This is explained in more detail in the next post.
Under projection the lenses are similar in contrast but the Hawk is sharper wide open; from T2.8 1/2 to T22 however the lenses are very similar. Both lenses are soft around the edges as you would expect from an Anamorphic lens this wide.
The Hawks are also very large, heavy and expensive. This 35mm is 5.3kg, and a full set of lenses is around half a million pounds! The C-series on the other hand are tiny in comparison, much more akin to the size of a spherical prime, but due to the fact they have not been manufactured for a long time they are irreplaceable so arguably priceless.
The other interesting thing to note about these two lenses are that the Hawks are currently manufactured and were designed only a few years ago, where as the C-series were designed and manufactured in the late 50s early 60s!